153 health workers, including veteran doctors, died of COVID-19 since beginning of pandemic AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s health minister has urged heath workers who live in Houthi-controlled areas to head to liberated provinces to receive coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, after the Iran-backed group refused to run an inoculation program in densely populated areas. “Health colleagues who were deprived of the coronavirus vaccine in the Houthi-controlled areas can get vaccinated in the provinces under the authority of the legitimate government,” Dr. Qasem Buaibeh said on his official Facebook page. Shortly after receiving 360,000 dozes of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine last week, war-torn Yemen started a vaccination campaign in southern provinces with the aim of inoculating thousands of health workers, the elderly and people with serious health problems, with government officials, health workers and journalists receiving their shots first to convince the public of its safety. But Yemeni health officials told Arab News on Monday that the Houthis, having first agreed to take 10,000 doses, later demanded just 500 for 250 health workers despite reports of numerous deaths in the capital Sanaa alone. “The (Houthis) have never disclosed the real numbers of COVID-19 (cases) and deny the existence of the virus in their areas,” Dr. Ishraq Al-Subaee, a spokesman for the Aden-based National Coronavirus Committee, said. This prompted Yemeni health officials to urge doctors to travel to government-controlled areas such as Aden, Hadramout or Taiz. “They can show up at any health facility here in the south, and get their shots of the vaccine,” Al-Subaee said. The National Coronavirus Committee reported on Monday that 46 new cases of the virus had been confirmed alongside 18 deaths, bringing the total number of cases in government-controlled areas to 6,183. On Sunday, the committee recorded 32 news cases and 12 deaths in the provinces of Taiz, Hadramout, Shabwa, Aden and Dhale. Yemen recorded the first case of COVID-19 in April last year in the southeastern province of Hadramout. Health experts believe the real number is more than triple the official figure, due to poor testing resources and Houthi refusals to reveal accurate numbers in areas under their control. Despite their rejection of media reports about the transmission of the virus in Sanaa and elsewhere in northern Yemen, the militia recently announced the deaths of several leaders from undisclosed causes. On Monday, Al-Masdr Online and other local media publications reported that Gen. Yahiya Al-Shami, a Houthi military leader, died of complications arising from COVID-19. Al-Shami was described as “the mastermind” of the Houthi coup against internationally-recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in late 2014, and the later military expansion across Yemen. In 2017, the Arab coalition placed Al-Shami, along with 44 Houthi leaders, including his son Zakaria, at the top of its wanted list, and announced a $20 million reward for information leading to his location and arrest. On social media, Houthi affiliate accounts recently announced the death of several other military leaders and politicians from the disease. Meanwhile, a group of Yemeni doctors based overseas has demanded the immediate and rapid distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across Yemen to protect health workers. Yemeni Doctors in the Diaspora said that 153 health workers, including veteran doctors, had died of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. “We are urgently calling (on) the international community, the region, UN organizations and the local authorities to take action to deliver the vaccine to all health sector workers in all parts of Yemen,” the group said, warning that “the escalating (number of) deaths of health workers will lead to the collapse of the dilapidated health system in Yemen.” Abdulla bin Ghouth, an epidemiology professor at Hadramout University’s College of Medicine, and an adviser to the Yemeni health minister, told Arab News that Yemen is going through its second wave of the virus, which started in the first week of February this year, and reached its peak earlier this month, with 720 cases and 100 known fatalities. “The situation is still grave given the high number of deaths,” bin Ghouth said.